Shocker: Chrysler Won’t Repay Bailout Money

chrysler

There goes that cash… straight down the money pit.

But, hey, what’s $7 Billion among friends. Especially nowadays:

Chrysler LLC will not repay U.S. taxpayers more than $7 billion in bailout money it received earlier this year and as part of its bankruptcy filing.

This revelation was buried within Chrysler’s bankruptcy filings last week and confirmed by the Obama administration Tuesday. The filings included a list of business assumptions from one of the company’s key financial advisors in the bankruptcy case.

Now, a pessimist might say that the bailout money has gone down the black hole that these failing companies are and we will never see any of it repaid (even if the companies want to repay it).  Unfortunately I am a pessimist. After all the government would much rather own or control these companies than get money back from them:

An Obama administration official confirmed Tuesday that Chrysler won’t be repaying the loans, though a portion of the bridge loan may be recovered by Treasury from the assets of Chrysler Financial, the former credit arm of the automaker which is essentially going out of business as part of the reorganization.

“The reality now is that the face value [of the $4 billion bridge loan] will be written off in the bankruptcy process,” said the official, who added that the 8% equity stake that Treasury will be receiving as part of the company’s reorganization is meant to compensate taxpayers for the lost money.

Like I said… shocking.

Philly Newspapers File for Bankruptcy

Philadelphia inquirer

Not long after reports that the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News were seeking a bailout from our beloved spendaholic Dem Governor Ed Rendell we now hear that the papers are filing for Bankruptcy:

Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C., which owns The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com, filed for bankruptcy protection today in a bid to restructure its $390 million in debt load.

The company, bought by a group of Philadelphia-area investors for $562 million in 2006, said the voluntary Chapter 11 filing would not interrupt its daily operations.

“This restructuring is focused solely on our debt, not our operations,” chief executive officer Brian P. Tierney, who led the group that provided about $150 million of the purchase price three years ago, said in a news release.

Gee, can anybody guess what the source of these papers’ problems is? Yup, nobody wants to pay for their fishwrap:

The financial burden from an advertising downturn, rising costs for newsprint, and the migration of readers to the Internet caused Philadelphia Newspapers to fall out of compliance with its loan agreements last year. The same conditions have devastated the broadcast industry.

Yea… that’s newspapers-who-are-failing talk for nobody is buying our paper so we can’t pay our bills. Nobody should be shocked by this. But I think the real question here is how long until Rendell comes a runnin’ cash in hand?

UPDATE: Hello to everyone from Patterico’s! Be sure to catch The College Politico at CPAC this year.

Massive Bailout Madness!!!

In case you missed the first go round we now have the pleasure of a take two which shall be appropriately named:

Massive Bailout Madness!!!

Who are the stars of this sequel you ask? Well I’ll tell you…

First off, like any quality sequel, there is always one returning star. For this production that returning star happens to be AIG. The insurance giant wants billions more on top of the billions they received in Bailout Madness take one.

But, like any sequel worth destroying a country over, this sequel includes a few big name newcomers.

There is American Express who must have figured, “Hey, we suck at running our business too… why not?”

And the last star for this sequel, though you can be sure this certainly isn’t the last sequel (I’m thinking this could be a 5 part series), happens to be the big three automakers. Yes, that’s right, in a not so shocking move Ford, GM, and Chrysler have asked for and received a 25 billion dollar bailout… opps make that two 25 billion dollar bailouts.

Unfortunately the predictability and complete lack of direction combined with an overused and ultimately unsuccessful plot line (you know how it goes, Business meets bad management. Bad management drowns business. Government buys badly managed business. Government provides even worse management, as always. Economy explodes) makes Massive Bailout Madness absolutely unbearable. I am forced to declare it a turkey (and I mean on a Gigli level).

I much prefer the classic and intelligent; Business makes bad choices. Business doesn’t get free money. Business faces consequences of its actions. Business learns lesson and adapts or closes.

But, in an upside for those who prefer the story behind Massive Bailout Madness, I hear it is an extremely popular plot line overseas…

UPDATE: Rumor… Newspapers will be big new star for then third instalment of this worn out series?